U.S. Postal Service Delivers Children’s Holiday Dreams

Through Letters to Santa Program — Now Celebrating 100 Years

NEW YORK — What do the U.S. Postal Service and Santa Claus have in common? Neither rain, nor snow, nor heat, nor gloom of night will keep them from delivering dreams this holiday season. Today marks the start of the Postal Service’s annual “Letters to Santa” program, a campaign that’s helped fulfill holiday wishes of children and their families for a century.

“Letters to Santa” is an annual letter-writing program for individuals, businesses and charitable organizations to respond to children’s letters addressed to Santa Claus, the North Pole and other seasonal characters. To mark the start of the letter adoption period, a ceremony was held today at New York City’s Operation Santa command center — the iconic James A. Farley building — with a special appearance by Santa Claus.

The Postal Service expects to deliver more than 15.2 billion cards, letters and packages between now and Christmas Eve. This year, a postmark of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by six reindeer will appear in the upper right-hand corner of holiday cards and letters.

“The ‘Letters to Santa’ program has made dreams come true for those in need for 100 years,” added Donahoe. This is a time to celebrate how postal employees, charitable organizations, businesses and others have made a difference in the lives of children coast to coast.”

To learn more about the USPS “Letters to Santa” program and to view a list of participating Post Offices, visit usps.com/holidaynews.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office™ Boxes. The Postal Service™ receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com®, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.